It comes with a balance knob?!?! I'll take it!

My Conrad Johnson Classic 2se has no Balance , it was the first component I've owned without....never needed it sitting in the middle.   My Zesto Leto has it ,  only used it while troubleshooting a noise.....    The Zesto Leto Ultra did away with Balance altogether.     My DAC has Balance , again only used it during troubleshooting 

...hmmm...do separate level controls qualify, or is that even more 'retro' or 'sota' sorta' ?  

Is it possible to have too many?  Pre-, post-, even at the amps?

Lol, I remember my first high end pre amp ... it had just a few knobs, as was the trend, but it still had a balance knob. I was used to balance knobs that would ’move’ the sound from full left to full right. This one didn’t. I thought I heard a teenie tiny difference on my Magnepan speakers between full left or full right, but I couldn’t even tell for sure.

Not that I planned on using the balance knob, but with new equipment I wanted things to work and not be broken. I called the dealer. He called the manufacturer. I sent the unit in for measurement, under guarantee. It was gone 6 weeks. It came back with a measurement report ... all was well ... the difference was 2 dB, as intended!

2 dB ... the border of what is humanly detectable ... lol ... that's what I call 'fine tuning'. Why not leave that knob off? I has been in the middle ... for 30 years now ... the amp is still perfectly balanced.

Summarising, balance adjustment is useful to correct

*hearing deficiencies

*room deficiencies

*small output differences in phone cartridges

*speaker placement issues

*tube/valve output differences

*adjusting position of sweet spot

*channel verification

Balance control need not degrade sound any more than a volume pot if the amp is configured dual mono with a knob for each channel.

Story ends.

Well, I, and I imagine others have said the inverse of the OP's statement:. "There's no balance control?  I'll pass.". Many recordings are not made with perfect L-R balance ( poor mastering, faulty studio monitoring equipment, etc.).  I find my balance control, on my remote, to be indispensable.  An off-center center stage is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.  One reason I sold my CJ PV-11 was the limited range of balance adjustment.  Of course, separate left and right volume pots also work, but not having any means of adjusting channel balance rules out a preamp for me.  One major rag reviewer refers to the balance control as his soundstage control.  Horses for courses.